Hey everyone, just wanting to get some opinions on creep feeding and when people tend to start. I hear 4-6 weeks is a good time to start.. but have also heard people who say you shouldn't start too early because it can make them grow too much too fast. So just wondering when you guys start to creep feed your foals?? Sky is turning 7 weeks tomorrow so thinking about starting her soon. Also any particular foal feed you guys recommend?? Looking into those right now as well. Thanks!

You'll get lots of different opinions on this. We start as soon as the foal starts seriously eating out of mom's feed pan (about 4 weeks) . We start with 1/2 cup 2x times a day. At the start, mom will finish it. Then we start penning the foal at feed time to let it have time to eat as much as it wants. Buckshot now gets 1 1/2 cups 2x times a day. However, we feed the same performance mix (10-12% protein) to the foal as the rest of the horses, including mom (who got 2x everyone else before fowling and while nursing).
At 7 weeks, your foal is plenty ready for some feed, Imho.Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks for your advice! And yes know there's a lot of different opinions on the matter.. more just wondering what brands people recommend. Going to start creep feeding Sky just have to choose a feed to start her on

I just wanted to add that we started offering our colt feed when he was about 10 weeks old. He always had access to his moms, but we would give him his own bucket. He absolutely had no interest in it what so ever! We even put vinegar in it as recommended, but he still just would rather play with the bucket than eat the feed. To be honest I was starting to get concerned, but he was still nursing from mom OK, and is turned out to pasture 24/7. He looks great, I just knew he needs to start eating feed soon.

Last week, 1 week before he turned 4 months old, he started eating his feed. It was like one day he decided he was hungry and that stuff was really good!! He just couldn't get enough. He went from turning his nose up at it, to wanting as much as we will give him in one day 😳😳!

So I guess the moral of my story is if your foal won't eat it right away, just keep offering it, the day will come.Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks MsLady! Sky is definitely interested, and has just started trying to steal moms food, which right now is just beet pulp.. (long story short my mare had an acute attack of laminitis due to retained placenta, so vet did not want her to get grain during the acute phase to be safe.. so she's been getting lots of hay and beet pulp) Although now she is well enough that we can start introducing her back to grain. So that's why I'm wondering what mare and foal feed y'all use. Have any of you guys heard of the brand progressive? (grain company not the car insurance one! lol) I was looking at Foal's first- starter and creep from Progressive, to start Sky on.. it's a milk based pellet which is fed up to 4 months and then you switch them over to a weanling feed. Here's the link

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